MLB.com's Carrie Muskat has been covering Major League Baseball since 1981 and is the author of "Banks to Sandberg to Grace: Five Decades of Love and Frustration with the Cubs." You can follow her on Twitter @CarrieMuskat. Here, she blogs about the Cubs.

6/27 Zambrano update

Neither manager Lou Piniella nor GM Jim Hendry has heard from Carlos Zambrano since Friday’s incident at U.S. Cellular Field. The Cubs were still waiting for word from Major League Baseball regarding guidelines for the team-issued suspension following Zambrano’s dugout tantrum.

“I think until something gets rectified, I think probably the less conversation the better,” Piniella said Sunday.

Hendry said he has talked to Zambrano’s agent, Barry Praver, a few times since the tirade. The Cubs will play with a 24-man roster until the situation is settled.

The next step will be how Zambrano settles matters with his teammates after accusing them of not playing behind him.

“He’ll have some issues to deal with [regarding] his teammates,” Hendry said.

White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen gave Zambrano some advice.

“Ozzie’s a good counselor,” Piniella said. “He’s from [Zambrano’s] country. About the only thing I wouldn’t want Ozzie counseling me on is my finances.”

Piniella was joking about Guillen’s role as a financial consultant.

The Cubs were still peeved about Zambrano having dinner with Guillen after Friday’s game. Piniella passed on being with his daughter because he was upset about the incident.

“I hadn’t seen my daughter since I left for Spring Training,” Piniella said. “That was mid February. She got in Friday night from Tampa and I got home to my apartment and my wife and daughter wanted me to go eat dinner with them. I was sick from what happened and I was very tired and embarrassed. They both went out and ate by themselves. I stayed home. That’s all I have to say about that situation.”

– Carrie Muskat

Share this:

Like this:

Related

4 Comments

I don’t know about everybody else, but after I have a bad day at work, I tend to call up a friend and either talk on the phone or go out. Talking to someone about your issues is a great way to get another perspective and/or calm down. I know everyone is different, but if I just sit by myself and reflect I just get more worked up. Maybe that works for Piniella, but not for everyone. If Big Z needs to talk to a friend that isn’t involved in the issue, I don’t see the problem.

WHY IS LOU PISS ABOUT A DINNER DATE WHEN HE SHOULD BE PISS ABOUT HOW HE IS MANAGING THE TEAM AND HOW HIS SO CALL SUPERSTAR ARE PLAYING Z LIFE OFF THE FIELD OUT SIDE OF BASEBALL IS NOT HIS CONCERN SO LOU GET PISSFOR THE RIGHT REASONS PLEASE DO THAT FOR US DIEHARD CUB FAN PLEASE FIND THAT FIRE THAT MADE YOU THE MAN YOU ONCE WAS

Tampering??? What proof do you have that Ozzie was trying to get Z to join the White Sox???

Ozzie and Z have been friends for years. Ozzie was one of the first people to call and congratulate Big Z after his no hitter a few years back.

To call their dinner tampering is just idiotic. The dinner was planned well before his outburst, and was publicly known about before the game.

To ask Z to cancel on a dinner with his family and a close friend so he could stew wouldn’t help the situation any. Hopefully, his friend was able to calm him down—even if they didn’t talk about baseball at all, just hangin out with friends can bring up a persons spirits.

Meta

The following are trademarks or service marks of Major League Baseball entities and may be used only with permission of Major League Baseball Properties, Inc. or the relevant Major League Baseball entity: Major League, Major League Baseball, MLB, the silhouetted batter logo, World Series, National League, American League, Division Series, League Championship Series, All-Star Game, and the names, nicknames, logos, uniform designs, color combinations, and slogans designating the Major League Baseball clubs and entities, and their respective mascots, events and exhibitions.